This article about Douglas Carswell’s profligacy with other peoples’ money does at least show just how well he will fit in with UKip and their unaccountable, corrupt and often criminal abuse of public money.

Douglas Carswell, the Conservative backbencher who spearheaded the campaign to depose Michael Martin as Commons Speaker, claimed £655 from his expenses for a love seat.

Douglas CarswellPhoto: ARCHANT

By Jon Swaine

8:45AM BST 03 Jun 2009

The MP for Harwich said on Tuesday that the money had been well spent because his wife had recently given birth.

Mr Carswell, who has made his name as an anti-sleaze campaigner, made the claim after switching the designation of his second home to a property in his constituency, having claimed thousands of pounds for a London flat.

He initially designated the £1 million flat in south west London as his second home after being elected in 2005. He claimed more than £21,000 for a deposit, rent, food and furniture over 15 months.

The MP then began renting a £335,000 house in Thorpe Le Soken, Essex, in March 2007, and designated this as his second home. He again paid for the security deposit from his expenses.

He then used his allowances to pay for furniture, including the £655 “Maximus” love seat in deep moss brushed cotton, with extra fabric protection from sofa.com. Mr Carswell lives at the house with his wife, Clementine.

He said: “I bought the love seat and bed when moving into the home with my future wife. We have since got married and have had our first baby.”

Since the couple moved in, Mr Carswell has claimed a total of £32,000 in expenses related to the house.

He also owns a property in Hertfordshire, which he rents out. Mrs Carswell sold her flat in south-west London for £500,000 last year.

The MP bills taxpayers for the entire rent of £1,250 per month and £2,280 annual council tax bills for the Essex house.

Since moving in, he has also claimed £1,605 for two sofas and £1,483 for a bed, mattress and chairs from ILVA.

He spent a further £700 for bedding and household extras at Peter Jones and The White Company.

Mr Carswell also claimed £453 for a fridge freezer, £400 for a washing machine, £99 for a garden strimmer and bin, and £377 for a radio, telephone, vacuum cleaner, iron and television.

In November 2007, he claimed £429 for four days’ worth of gardening.

He also claimed for a range of items bought at Tesco, including a 74p washing line.

Mr Carswell rose to prominence in April last year when he became the first MP to publicly call for Mr Martin to resign over his decision to instigate a legal challenge to keep the details of MPs’ expenses secret.

He criticised the Speaker for his handling of the row over MPs’ expenses and for his failure to restore the integrity of Parliament. “Never has there been such bitter contempt for politicians or the standing of MPs been so low,” he wrote at the time.

“We need to clean up Westminster politics and take action to restore faith in our political system.” Mr Carswell, who worked as an adviser to David Cameron in the run-up to the 2005 election, last month tabled a no-confidence motion against Mr Martin.

Although the motion was not debated, it was widely credited with having helped prompt the Speaker’s decision to resign later this month.

Last night Mr Carswell told The Daily Telegraph: “I have never used public money to pay a private mortgage. I have instead rented.

“It is true that I bought an armchair, sofa and some bedding, as well as a few other modest items of crockery and furniture. I believe this is entirely justified.”

“Before making every claim, I have asked myself not only ‘is it within the rules’, but ‘can I justify this to my local constituents’. In every instance I believe I can,” he said.

So it seems there was no room at the Inn for the Tory Conference for the self proclaimed Messiah of the Tory Back Bench EUSceptics!

Well I guess by defecting Douglas Carsdale will have the advantage that his expenses will fall in line with UKip’s and be largely unaccountable. He will not only be assured of a room at the main UKip conference Hotel and be made to feel important but may even be able to follow in Farage’s footsteps and open an Isle of Man account to help his tax position though whether he will be able to emulate Farage and deposit £1/4Million in it will depend what share of his wife’s flat he was able to obtain, he will at least be able to have his wife employed by one of the other UKip functionaries I expect.

Though one can respect Carswell, having had his little temper tantrum and inviting Farage to his Press Conference, for having offered his resignation from the Tories for his last 8 months as a Tory MP though whether the tax payers consider the basic cost of around £1/4Million for a by-election good value for money is another point!

We hear that Stuart Wheeler, as a sponsor of UKip, had wined and dined Carswell and a few other potential defectors, as he saw them, doubtless he proffered their election expenses as a douceur for those willing to betray the Tories as he had done.

Although proclaimed by his fan club as a man of principles it does seem that principally this man seeks his own rewards.

It seems all too likely that the by-election will fall for Nigel Farage and no doubt he wishes he could have a by election in Thanet as by elections are so much easier for the opposition or even extremist fringe to win as they are always seen as a means to register a protest vote without being taken too seriously as Janet Akinson so ably displayed in the EUropean electoral farce:

as she and a host of other electoral nonentities and ner do wells were elected.

Whether Douglas Carswell stands a chance of hanging onto his seat at a General Election is another matter, as the electorate tend not to value a self serving drama queen when the chips are down in a real election – as we have seen so consistently with the collapse of the UKip vote whenever a General Election comes around.

There will also be those angered by his behaviour in risking the chances of a referendum, which he so praised David Cameron for although he himself failed to make any effort to gain one neither campaigning for it nor signing the petition which brought it about – as with Nigel Farage who did all his advocacy of a petition AFTER Nikki Sinclaire had handed in the petition she had raised of 220,000 signatures thereby gaining a full debate on the issue in the House of Commons! Farage had in fact done all he could to sabotage the petition thus helping Cameron to ensure Britain remained in the EU!

For more details of just how contrarian is Carswell’s betrayal of his own principles can be seen if you CLICK HERE